Agnes A. Ferrara

Agnes Altomonte Ferrara was age 90 when she peacefully passed on Tuesday, September 5, 2017.  Born in 1927, Agnes was a life-time Jersey City resident, raised by Italian immigrants in the "Downtown" section.  

Agnes attended and graduated with high honors from both #5 Elementary School and Ferris High School In Jersey City.  At that time she was awarded a "Medal of Honor" from the Casa Columbo Italian Cultural Society for her command of the Italian language both speaking and in writing.

After her graduation she worked in the Altomonte Travel Agency on 296 Newark Avenue, her family business, by the old 5th Police Precinct. Then a thriving multifaceted travel, immigration, insurance and printing business founded by her grandfather Antonio Altomonte in 1903 and continued by her father Joseph which closed in 2003 after over 100 years in business. Agnes was adept as translator of legal documents from Italian to English, a notary and over the years with now her deceased sisters and partners Vincenza Aiello and Josephine Tornabe expanded the business to include income tax services.

In 1948 Agnes married in Italy her now deceased husband Frank Ferrara Sr. and returned after a long beautiful honeymoon there to the United States setting up home in the Jersey City "Heights".  She is deeply loved by her five children Pascal (Pat), Joseph, Frank Jr., Karen and Joan, eight grandchildren Sunshine, Jonathan, Hailey, Tamara, Tayloe, Michael,  Rachel, Jesse and one great-grandchild Jeweliauna.  Agnes is also survived by many dear to her; brother in law Anthony Tornabe and sister in laws Carmelina Fornaro and Maria Amabile; cousins Carol Lizzul, Clara Carpenter and Emily Veltre; nieces Marylou Tornabe, Josephine Romano, Karen Sasso and Ida Fornaro; and nephew Guglielmo Fornaro.

Originally a member of Holy Rosary R.C Parish and since the 1950s a active member of St Anne's R.C. Church. She was a Boy Scout Den Mother, on the Parent's Council, long time members of the Holy Rosary Society, Padre Pio prayer group and the Italian Dante Alighieri Cultural Society. Agnes also excelled in cooking and baking making everything fresh from scratch such as ravioli's, sauces, soup's, bread, pizza, cannoli's, donuts and all kinds of cakes. For many years she worked as assistant manager of Joan's store "Southbeachgifts" and continued until last month with accounting of website sales.

Agnes was very creative making curtains, dresses, crocheting, making any event with her special touch. She had a very unique hobby "Handwriting Analysis" which her family and friends would listen to her interpretation of their writing for hours. She was always a very helping and loving person to not only her large family and huge network of friends but also to strangers she just met, often blessing and kissing them after their meeting. She enjoyed life and loved to go to parties and events and will be missed by those touched by her!

Visitation will be on Saturday, September 9, 2017 and Sunday, September 10, 2017, 2-4pm and 7-9pm at RIOTTO FUNERAL HOME & Cremation Company, 3205 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Jersey City, NJ 07306 (For GPS navigation use parking lot entrance address 14 Stagg St.).  Funeral will begin on Monday, September 11, 2017 9:30am at the funeral home.  Funeral Mass will follow 11am at St. Anne's Church, 3545 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Jersey City, NJ 07306.  Entombment will take place at Holy Cross Chapel Mausoleum, North Arlington.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to NJ Alzheimer's ( http://www.alznj.org/ ).